Himadri Eyes Larger Sicona Stake to Boost EV Battery Tech

According to its CMD and CEO, Anurag Choudhary, Himadri Speciality Chemical plans to increase its ownership of the Australian battery materials business Sicona over the next year. The relaunch of Birla Tyres on a pan-India basis is anticipated to take 12 to 14 months, according to Choudhary, who made this statement in an interview with Businessline. Birla Tyres Ltd. is owned by the biggest specialty carbon black manufacturer in the nation. Quotes:

Himadri Speciality Chemical reported its highest-ever quarterly EBITDA and net profit for the first quarter this fiscal at ₹234 crore and ₹183 crore, respectively. What were the factors that contributed to it?

Gradually, we are transitioning into high value-added-products. This is increasing the EBITDA margin on a sustainable basis. Additionally, we are undertaking numerous specific assignments to enhance operational efficiencies, which are helping us improve our yield. We have also taken up a waste heat recovery project. So, all these combined together helped us improve EBITDA.

What is the outlook for EBITDA margin for this fiscal?

Our EBITDA margin stood at 21 per cent for Q1FY26. We expect to maintain this margin for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Himadri Speciality Chemical has entered into an exclusive technology licensing agreement with Sicona, an Australian battery materials company. What are the plans going ahead?

The exclusive technology licensing agreement pertains to the manufacturing of silicon carbon, which we plan to produce at our proposed factory. When silicon carbon is blended into the anode material for lithium-ion batteries, it increases the battery’s capacity, resulting in higher mileage, and significantly reducing charging time. In this case, the charging time reduced by 40 per cent and the mileage increases by 20 per cent. This is going to be the first in the world.

Now the engineering work is going on. Once the engineering work is completed, we will be able to determine the capex and the timeline for the project. In the next six months, we will decide the location of our greenfield plant.

Currently, Himadri Speciality Chemical has around a 15 per cent stake in Sicona. Do you plan to increase the stake further?

We might increase our stake in Sicona. Over the next year, we will decide whether to increase our stake in the company.

Birla Tyres’ Balasore plant in Odisha has restarted production activities. What is your plan to ramp up the production capacity and add new products to the portfolio

Now the production has started. Currently, we are producing truck and bus tyres. We will ramp up the production on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Every quarter, we will ramp up, and each quarter, we introduce new and modernised products. The product portfolio is expected to increase significantly over the next one year. In addition to this, the focus on Birla Tyres will be clearly on the Passenger Car Radial (PCR) and Electric Vehicle (EV) segments. So Birla Tyres, in a way, will strengthen our footprint in EV sector because we already have a significant presence through cathode and anode, in the Electric Vehicle sector.

This year, our focus will be on agriculture and mining tyres. After one and a half years, we will start the production of PCR. Once we start the passenger radial tyres, we will introduce the EV tyres. So now the work is going with the designing part of the EV tyre.

Currently, the capacity of the plant is around 400 tonnes per day. Over the next two to three years, we will ramp up the production capacity. We are getting very good brand recall from the market.

In which markets have you re-launched the tyres? What is the pan-India plan?

In the first phase, we introduced our products in Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Uttar Pradesh. We’ll continue to add the States. I believe that within the next 12 to 14 months, the products will be available pan-India.